Athlete's foot is a common name for pompholyx ringworm, a kind of skin disease which forms on soles, palms and interdigital surfaces of hands and feet, and is caused by a kind of filamentous fungus classed as trichophyton. Favus producing white round desquamating macula and ringworm also fall into the same classification which is often called dartre or herpes. In Japan, for example, athlete's foot spreads in the rainy season and in the summer. Various kinds of medicines thus far proposed have been unable to cure this disease completely. Therefore, the disease remains uncured over the winter, and then begins to spread again from around April or May of the following year. Athlete's foot the world over exhibits more or less the same tendency.
The inventor has previously discovered that an aerosol of the oxide of some oils have a high curative effect on athlete's foot. When oxidized by light, heat and/or catalyst, a vegetable oil consisting mainly of glycerides of linolic, cleic, palmitic, stearic, arachidinic and other similar acids forms a peroxide, which then decomposes to generate a gaseous body known as an aerosol. This aerosol consists mainly of alcohol, aldehyde, ketone, lactonic oxides, glycolic, valeric and acetic acids plus other complex components. On contacting the athlete's foot-affected part, this aerosol reacts to turn the lesion into a humid powdery starch-like crust or, when having reached a greater depth, into a white cotton-waste-like crust, comprising 3 to 8 mm long fibers, which desquamates like a spider's threads, although some variations are seen depending upon the nature of the fungus. By repeating this treatment until the above-described condition is reached, athlete's foot can be cured completely.
The inventor invented an apparatus for treating athlete's foot as described in the Japanese Utility Model No. 55-5156. This apparatus comprises an aerosol chamber which contains a plate to carry an aerosol generating substance and a heat source and has a window to insert the affected zone on hand or foot. This apparatus, however, has not been without some shortcomings, such as the leaking of the ill-smelling aerosol and the heating of the exterior walls of the apparatus.